Skip to main content

Fukuoka International Marathon Elite Field


With less than 4 weeks to go the organizers of the Dec. 3 Fukuoka International Marathon have announced this year's elite field. And here it is. The field is set up to try to help top Japanese man Kyohei Hosoya (Kurosaki Harima), who fell and dropped out during last month's Olympic marathon trials, to 2:05:50, where he'll take the third spot on the Paris Olympic team away from trials 3rd-placer Suguru Osako (GMO). Hosoya ran 2:06:35 in the Miracle at Lake Biwa in 2021, but although he's been pretty stable since then he hasn't been able to get under 2:08 again. Abebe Negewo Degefa (Ethiopia) is the only athlete in the field to have gone under 2:05:50 in the last 3 years, with Kenyans Bethwel Yegon and Abel Kirui, 5th last year at age 40, both at the 2:06 level.

Beyond that it looks like a solid 2:07 race with 6 men including last year's 2nd through 4th-placers Vincent Raimoi (Suzuki), Michael Githae (Suzuki) and Australian NR breaker Brett Robinson. An interesting addition is Chinese duo Shaohui Yang and Peiyou Feng, Yang with China's 2nd-fastest-ever time of 2:07:49 in Wuxi in the spring and Feng with a 2:09:21 in the same race. With a million Chinese marathons to choose from it's a surprise to see them come to Japan, but it wouldn't be a surprise to see at least Yang walk away as the top Asian finisher. Also in the field is 2017 winner Sondre Nordstad Moen (Norway), hoping to get under 2:10 for the first time since 2020 after a good 1:00:20 half marathon in Malaga last week.

Fukuoka International Marathon Elite Field

Fukuoka, 3 Dec. 2023
times listed are best in last 3 years except where noted

Abebe Negewo Degefa (Ethiopia) - 2:05:27 (Valencia 2021)
Bethwel Yegon (Kenya) - 2:06:14 (Berlin 2021)
Kyohei Hosoya (Japan/Kurosaki Harima) - 2:06:35 (Lake Biwa 2021)
Abel Kirui (Kenya) - 2:06:52 (Milan 2021)
Vincent Raimoi (Kenya/Suzuki) - 2:07:01 (Fukuoka Int'l 2022)
Zerei Kbrom Mezngi (Norway) - 2:07:10 (Valencia 2022) 
Michael Githae (Kenya/Suzuki) - 2:07:28 (Fukuoka Int'l 2022)
Brett Robinson (Australia) - 2:07:31 (Fukuoka Int'l 2022)
Bethwell Kipkemboi Ruto (Kenya) - 2:07:34 (Daegu 2023)
Shaohui Yang (China) - 2:07:49 (Wuxi 2023)
Peiyou Feng (China) - 2:09:21 (Wuxi 2023)
Andrew Buchanan (Australia) - 2:10:20 (Hamburg 2023)
Sondre Nordstad Moen (Norway) - 2:10:23 (Vienna 2023)
Takuma Kumagai (Japan/Sumitomo Denko) - 2:10:41 (Fukuoka Int'l 2021)
Joel Mwaura (Kenya/Kurosaki Harima) - 2:10:45 (Fukuoka Int'l 2022)
Yusuke Tobimatsu (Japan/Hioki City Hall) - 2:10:47 (Hofu 2021)
Asuka Tanaka (Japan/Runlife) - 2:11:09 (Tokyo 2022)
Kamil Jastrzębski (Poland) - 2:11:09 (Valencia 2021)
Hiromasa Kumahashi (Japan/Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) - 2:11:24 (Tokyo 2023)
Taira Kato (Japan/Shindengen Kogyo) - 2:12:06 (Tokyo 2023)
Tomoki Yoshioka (Japan/Kyudenko) - 2:12:21 (Nobeoka 2023)
Hiroshi Ichida (Japan/Asahi Kasei) - 2:12:23 (Beppu-Oita 2019)
Edward Goddard (Australia) - 2:12:52 (Gold Coast 2023)

© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...
82 comments
Read more

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .
77 comments
Read more

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...
54 comments
Read more